Implementing and Managing the Valais-Wallis Time Machine project, to digitally simulate 10,000 years of history
Services:
Platform development
User research
Communication strategy
Data analysis
Technical support
Feasibility study
Project: Valais-Wallis Time Machine
Locations: Sion, Switzerland
Industries: Archives, Government, Museum,
Cultural Heritage
Date: Since 2017
Links: timemachinevs.ch
Background
The Valais Wallis Time Machine project aims to digitally simulate 10,000 years of Valais history to preserve, interpret and showcase cultural heritage using emerging technologies. The project started with a feasibility study and has evolved into a non-profit organization with various sub-projects, including the Verbier time machine, the Constitutional time machine, and the Sion time machine. The project aims to keep the historical data authentic, reliable, and usable while also ensuring the data remains available for public access. The project is part of the Time Machine organization, with over 400 institutional partners in 30 countries.
The Problem
Despite technological advancements, our society struggles to preserve our collective memories and cultural heritages. To keep up with the fast pace of innovation in the 21st century, we must find ways to effectively preserve, interpret, and showcase our past. Can we find a way to integrate our rich history with the digital age and gain a deeper understanding of how past events and stories have shaped our present?
The Solution
Our solution aimed to simulate 10,000 years of Valais history with high accuracy using digital technology, allowing users to travel through time and experience the region's past. Our project stood out from others by encompassing both short and long-term economic and cultural goals for the region. To ensure feasibility, we conducted an in-depth study to thoroughly understand the project and assess its financial, technical, and legal aspects. Based on our findings, we launched a pilot project as a starting point for the larger-scale initiative.
Press
The Ethical Challenges of Digitizing Our Cultural Heritage. Heidi News
L’IA au service du patrimoine. Le Nouvelliste
The use of digital technology in preserving cultural heritage poses new challenges, particularly the risk of privatization by large companies. This raises concerns about public access and additional costs, with the question of ownership still unresolved.
To maintain the authenticity, reliability, and usability of historical data, it is essential to ensure that artifacts and cultural elements do not disappear or become tainted. However, introducing the digital world into a space affected by armed conflicts, climate change, and sociopolitical pressures creates additional challenges.
Despite these challenges, the Time Machine project launched in 2012 and has gained over 400 institutional partners in 30 countries, allowing emerging technologies to enhance and simulate the last 10,000 years of Valais' history. This knowledge can be used to make better decisions in solving current and future challenges. Other heritage conservation organizations in Europe have begun digitizing the past, and the Valais Wallis Time Machine is a valuable example of a project within the European Time Machine consortium.
“The Sion Time Machine is a driving force of the Time Machine project ecosystem.”
Phase I: The Feasibility Study
When Alain Dubois, the Head of the Archives of Valais, came to us to explore the possibilities of implementing a Time Machine in Valais, we were enthusiastic about the idea. To ensure it would be practical and sustainable, we first wrote a feasibility study to understand the project in-depth and see if it was possible to implement such a large-scale project in Valais.
We focused on the accuracy of historical information and the mitigation of interpretation bias within our work to digitally simulate 10,000 years of Valais history and travel through time. Our project differs from others due to our short and long-term economic and cultural goals for the region. We wrote a feasibility study to understand the project in-depth and see if it was possible to implement such a large-scale project in Valais. Ultimately, we decided to start a pilot project that considered financial, technical, and legal aspects.
Phase II: Setting up the board & Legal structure
We were aware that to be successful, we had to ensure that access to the data remained free and open to the public. As well as to build a system that stores long-term data. To create a Time Machine for this specific town, we based our plan on the Venise Time Machine of the École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Working with the regional State Archives, we implemented the “Valais-Wallis Time Machine” and applied to become a member of the Time Machine Organization. With legal, strategic, and administrative structures behind the non-profit organization, we also created an ecosystem around the project that recognized the importance of open data and open science to researchers and the public.
Phase III: Managing the project
Managing the office of the “Valais-Wallis Time Machine” included constant communication with partners in various languages, proactive outreach to find new projects and ongoing maintenance with budgets and planning.
Current Subprojects
An ideal, energy-efficient storage system for transmitting our cultural heritage to future generations is still in development. However, involvement with these sub-projects is a good segway into future possibilities. If we use digital technologies to preserve European histories as accurately as possible, we must tread carefully and keep ethical considerations in mind.
The State Archives of Venice contains records stretching back over a thousand years. The vast collection of maps, images and other documents provide an incredible look into Venetian history. This could be used to create a kind of virtual time machine for historians and the public to explore the city.
Impact
The Valais-Wallis Time Machine project not only provides researchers with accurate historical data but also contributes to the economic and cultural goals of the region, promoting tourism, education, and research. With additional sub-projects such as the Sion, Verbier, and Constitutional Time Machines, the potential impact of this project expands even further. Preserving cultural heritage through digital technology while keeping ethical considerations in mind is crucial, and the Valais Wallis Time Machine project serves as a model for the digitization and preservation of European histories for better decision-making for present and future challenges.